Analysis of Attenuation and Dispersion of Acoustic Waves in Low-Density Polyethylene

Abstract

Acoustic attenuation of a pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) signal is theoretically studied using the Kelvin-Voigt model for viscoelastic materials. Starting with the basics of viscoelasticity, we apply the model to an analysis of acoustic wave propagation in PEA systems. In experiments, low-density polyethylene films with three different thicknesses are used as PEA samples to verify the model. The transfer functions of the polymers in the PEA system are obtained on the basis of the viscoelastic theory with which we can calculate acoustic attenuation in polymer films. The calculated acoustic waveforms show good agreement with the measured one. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the waveform recovery using the transfer function.